This week, try to pay attention to how your teacher asks questions and facilitates discussion in his or her classes. What types of questions does your CT ask? Are most of the questions asking students to relay facts or textbook definitions (recall) or to apply a concept to a new situation or compare it to another concept (application or analysis). Does your teacher ever encourage his or her students to be critical or skeptical? If so, when and how? Does your CT ever ask students to provide evidence to support a claim or explain their thinking? Does your teacher facilitate classroom discussion so that students are expressing scientific ideas to other students? Finally, does your CT vary the type of questions he or she asks depending on the level of the class, or the perceived ability of the student? Remember to reflect on what types of classroom discourse you want to foster in your classroom, how you will go about doing this, and why.
Observation:
In Mr. Browne’s Bio class this week we had a presentation on personality styles from the guidance department and then did a review for their first quarter test. Although this setting was a typical class with material being presented and student discussion, Mr. Browne asked many questions and guided discussion among the review. Very few of the review questions were basic recall, but the ones asked focus around important definitions in the material. Some of the questions Mr. Browne asked as part of the review consisted of him draw a diagram or a data set on the board and asking the students to make a prediction or identify components. Some examples include:
- An experiment set-up is read out loud to the students. They are asked to identify the independent and dependent variables.
- Two sets of data are written on the board and students are asked to identify each one as quantitative or qualitative.
- A cell is drawn on the board with water and sugar molecules both inside and outside. The cell is hypertonic and students are asked to indicate which way the water will move.
After each question was asked, Mr. Browne and I would go around the room and check the students’ answers for credit on their Bingo board. The students would give the correct answer out loud when prompted and a quick discussion would take place, asking if everyone understood why the answer was what it was, a brief drawing on the board if needed, and a reminder where to look in the book or notes for further review. Mr. Browne’s test will have a free response question where students are asked to design an experiment.
Between classes, Mr. Browne was explaining to me how both his Bio classes are about the same level, but one class (the one I was observing) is at a slightly lower level and needs more explaining. I have observed both classes and have begun to notice the slight difference in learning abilities. For the lower class, Mr. Browne keeps the main concepts simple and takes time asking many questions to make sure his students understand the material. For the more advanced students, Mr. Browne goes into more detail and fosters more student-guided discussion.
Ms. Parvo’s Earth Science class took their first quarter test on their mini-curriculum. The mini-curriculum revolves around the scientific method and research, in preparation for the ninth grade individual science project. Her questions on the test reflected the questions she normally asks in class. She combines recall with analysis and application questions, which students were required to do on the test. Examples of Ms. Parvo’s questions include, having students pick the “purpose” from a list of sentences, make conversions with the metric system, identify variables, and write a hypothesis for a given experiment.
Reflection:
This week was not a great week to observe my CT’s facilitating discussion and asking questions. I have, however, noticed in the past that they both ask a variety of questions to guide effective student-teacher discussions on the material being presented. Mr. Browne likes to give the students examples that they can relate the concepts to, and asks them questions about that, while Ms. Parvo likes to present a concept and have the students talk about it together first. The types of questions I observed Mr. Browne asking in the review, the ones he has written for the test, and the ones Ms. Parvo had on her test, reflect a variety of recall, analysis and application questions. There are few recall questions, like definitions and one that require students to just spit back information, and more about applying material and thinking critically. While observing Ms. Parvo’s class taking their test, I found it very interesting that I was able to tell the type of question the student was answering. On the recall questions, there was not pause. Students read the question and either wrote down their answer or chose it from a multiple choice. On the higher level questions, however, I observed students going back and re-reading the questions, writing notes on their papers, pausing to think about what they were writing and how they were answering the question. This is definitely the type of questioning and thinking I want to foster in my classroom. I think it is necessary for students to think critically about the material and be able to apply the concepts to new situations in order for them to fully understand it. To do this, students need to first recall their prior knowledge about related topics or the topic being addressed. With their background knowledge on the table, students will be able to see how their knowledge matches up with the concepts, being it either aligns or there are misconceptions present. Having students think critically, prompted by questions, they will begin to rethink their misconceptions and then be able to apply the correct information to new situations. Student discussion is also a big part of the classroom discourse I want to foster. With careful monitoring, and scaffolding when needed, having students talk to each other about the material, make connections between concepts, and even question the concepts, reinforces understanding.
Observation/Reflection #4: What Was the Question?
This week, try to pay attention to how your teacher asks questions and facilitates discussion in his or her classes. What types of questions does your CT ask? Are most of the questions asking students to relay facts or textbook definitions (recall) or to apply a concept to a new situation or compare it to another concept (application or analysis). Does your teacher ever encourage his or her students to be critical or skeptical? If so, when and how? Does your CT ever ask students to provide evidence to support a claim or explain their thinking? Does your teacher facilitate classroom discussion so that students are expressing scientific ideas to other students? Finally, does your CT vary the type of questions he or she asks depending on the level of the class, or the perceived ability of the student? Remember to reflect on what types of classroom discourse you want to foster in your classroom, how you will go about doing this, and why.Observation:
In Mr. Browne’s Bio class this week we had a presentation on personality styles from the guidance department and then did a review for their first quarter test. Although this setting was a typical class with material being presented and student discussion, Mr. Browne asked many questions and guided discussion among the review. Very few of the review questions were basic recall, but the ones asked focus around important definitions in the material. Some of the questions Mr. Browne asked as part of the review consisted of him draw a diagram or a data set on the board and asking the students to make a prediction or identify components. Some examples include:
- An experiment set-up is read out loud to the students. They are asked to identify the independent and dependent variables.
- Two sets of data are written on the board and students are asked to identify each one as quantitative or qualitative.
- A cell is drawn on the board with water and sugar molecules both inside and outside. The cell is hypertonic and students are asked to indicate which way the water will move.
After each question was asked, Mr. Browne and I would go around the room and check the students’ answers for credit on their Bingo board. The students would give the correct answer out loud when prompted and a quick discussion would take place, asking if everyone understood why the answer was what it was, a brief drawing on the board if needed, and a reminder where to look in the book or notes for further review. Mr. Browne’s test will have a free response question where students are asked to design an experiment.
Between classes, Mr. Browne was explaining to me how both his Bio classes are about the same level, but one class (the one I was observing) is at a slightly lower level and needs more explaining. I have observed both classes and have begun to notice the slight difference in learning abilities. For the lower class, Mr. Browne keeps the main concepts simple and takes time asking many questions to make sure his students understand the material. For the more advanced students, Mr. Browne goes into more detail and fosters more student-guided discussion.
Ms. Parvo’s Earth Science class took their first quarter test on their mini-curriculum. The mini-curriculum revolves around the scientific method and research, in preparation for the ninth grade individual science project. Her questions on the test reflected the questions she normally asks in class. She combines recall with analysis and application questions, which students were required to do on the test. Examples of Ms. Parvo’s questions include, having students pick the “purpose” from a list of sentences, make conversions with the metric system, identify variables, and write a hypothesis for a given experiment.
Reflection:
This week was not a great week to observe my CT’s facilitating discussion and asking questions. I have, however, noticed in the past that they both ask a variety of questions to guide effective student-teacher discussions on the material being presented. Mr. Browne likes to give the students examples that they can relate the concepts to, and asks them questions about that, while Ms. Parvo likes to present a concept and have the students talk about it together first. The types of questions I observed Mr. Browne asking in the review, the ones he has written for the test, and the ones Ms. Parvo had on her test, reflect a variety of recall, analysis and application questions. There are few recall questions, like definitions and one that require students to just spit back information, and more about applying material and thinking critically. While observing Ms. Parvo’s class taking their test, I found it very interesting that I was able to tell the type of question the student was answering. On the recall questions, there was not pause. Students read the question and either wrote down their answer or chose it from a multiple choice. On the higher level questions, however, I observed students going back and re-reading the questions, writing notes on their papers, pausing to think about what they were writing and how they were answering the question. This is definitely the type of questioning and thinking I want to foster in my classroom. I think it is necessary for students to think critically about the material and be able to apply the concepts to new situations in order for them to fully understand it. To do this, students need to first recall their prior knowledge about related topics or the topic being addressed. With their background knowledge on the table, students will be able to see how their knowledge matches up with the concepts, being it either aligns or there are misconceptions present. Having students think critically, prompted by questions, they will begin to rethink their misconceptions and then be able to apply the correct information to new situations. Student discussion is also a big part of the classroom discourse I want to foster. With careful monitoring, and scaffolding when needed, having students talk to each other about the material, make connections between concepts, and even question the concepts, reinforces understanding.